Mike Simpson

WEBINARS Effective seminars in the age of the Internet Reaching out to audiences through live seminars has long been an important marketing strategy. But the digital age – and ever-present need to contain costs – is seeing more organisations opt for Internet-based webinars instead. Mike Simpson reports. T IME-CONSUMING TRAVEL, expensive conference venues, costly overnight accommodation and time out of the office are all part of the equation when hosting and participating in seminars. Enter the digital age and the rise of the Web-based seminar, or webinar, as a cost-effective alternative. Businesses ranging from branding agencies and educational organisations, through to magazine publishers and business consultants, are now using webinars to connect with customers, provide product training, educate students in remote locations, or drive online sales of products and services. Credible, impartial statistics on webinar growth are hard to come 38 strategicmarketing ISSUE 1 2017 by. However, the 2016 Webinar Benchmarks Report, an annual study by the UK-based Bizible Group, notes: “We have seen a consistent rise in the popularity and value of webinars as an essential marketing, training, and communications tool. Year over year, we see companies taking their prewebinar promotions more seriously, getting more sophisticated about how they integrate video and offer opportunities for engagement, and thinking more carefully about their post-live strategies and how they promote their on-demand webinars.” Peter Carruthers, a business consultant who works with small South African companies to develop their sales and marketing techniques, says that since 2007 he has hosted around 5 000 hours of webinars with between five and 500 participants. In the decade or so prior to that, he had booked around 500 live seminars at hotels and conference venues across the country. According to Carruthers, he finds webinars to be far easier and cheaper to arrange, and with greater audience reach. “A simple tour – involving four events across SA in six months’ time – demands five hours transacting with each venue to confirm the details,” he explains. “The venue demands the deposit within 14 days of booking, while the agreed details often bear no resemblance to the [conference] room one encounters on the day.” EASY TO ARRANGE He continues: “An online webinar session, on the other hand, takes five minutes to arrange. Instead of four events, just one suffices. People from smaller towns can attend, opening a whole new market.” Is the customer’s webinar experience as good as attending a live event? Carruthers says each webinar’s participants determine the extent to which it gains traction. But he adds: “None of us would abandon live events if the economics worked better. A big chunk of [the customer’s] ticket price pays for the room, their seat, and the costs of the speakers getting to the venue. In the online environment, none of these costs apply.” Trade publications is one industry sector that’s embracing webinars. Southern African Tourism Update, which serves local and international tour operators, recently hosted a webinar for its readers with Sisa Ntshona, the new CEO of SA Tourism. Tessa Reed, the publication’s editor, says webinars are a way for advertisers to launch a new product or have an engagement with readers. “Our readership continues to grow, but it is a saturated audience of mainly tour operators. So rather than necessarily seeking more readers, you’re looking for more engagement with the existing readers and more content,” Reed explains. The online event attracted 274 registrations, which she believes is good for a niche publication. Ilse Dinner, who heads up marketing communications for research consultancy Millward Brown in Africa and the Middle East, is a fan of webinars because of their effective reach. “It’s fantastic for content marketing because it gives you greater reach, and social media channels allow you to connect with people you may not have had on your actual event list,” she says. “Webinars are a great way to connect with clients and contacts about specific learnings or news that you want to share.” She believes the time-strapped nature of modern business is also tailor-made for webinars. “We find that, with the pace of life today, to be able to reach out to people with a virtual event is hugely beneficial to their diaries and schedules, which seem to be getting busier and busier.” MAKE THEM ENGAGING Dinner warns that such events need to be interesting, relevant and engaging to get people to attend. Determining the optimum length of a webinar is arguably a key component of that. Reed believes around 30 minutes is appropriate for the tour operator audience that her publication serves. “I would warn against going more than 30 minutes as a rule; our readers are busy people and if they are expected to take too long out of their day it could impact registrations. Keep it short and sharp. Even if you do run out of time, it will make people more enthusiastic for the next one,” she says. Carruthers, on the other hand, will usually have webinars of around an hour long. Larry Kim, a columnist for US-based Inc. business magazine, recommends that webinar hosts use slides to keep participants interested. “Awesome visuals will keep your viewers engaged; be memorable and entertaining,” he advises. › Objective statistics on webinar growth are hard to find According to Entrepreneur magazine, having a co-presenter can be beneficial, as it doubles the expertise on offer to the audience and gives them more reasons to participate. In the event of technical difficulties, one presenter can continue to talk to the audience while the other attends to the problem. AUDIO AND VIDEO Must webinars make use of both audio and video for maximum effect? Jeanette Delport, a Gautengbased photographer, participates in international webinars to keep updated on photo-editing techniques. She believes being able to see the host is important. “It’s more personal if you can see them. Also, the individual doing the talking is usually the brand. >> ISSUE 1 2017 strategicmarketing 39 WEBINARS THE TECHNOLOGY The technicalities that come with hosting a webinar can be a challenge for some. Gordon Barker of Epnet Live Streaming, a Johannesburg company that provides online streaming services, notes that while international businesses tend to have a good understanding of the requirements of webinar hosting, in South Africa there is still a lack of knowledge. “This is the 40 strategicmarketing ISSUE 1 2017 main reason why webinars have not really taken off here,” he says. According to Barker, there are a number of Internet-based services that can be used to host webinars. Google Hangouts, for example, provides free hosting. GoToMeeting is another good site and its GoToWebinar service allows a free trial service for 30 days. Thereafter, you can expect to pay around R1 300 for its basic webinar hosting service for 1 000 simultaneous attendees. “In my case, my annual GoToWebinar bill, allowing up to 24 hours of webinars each day, costs less than a single evening event of 50 seats at a Johannesburg hotel,” notes Carruthers. Webinar hosting services will typically also offer a recording service, which enables the event to be made available on a website or social media site for subsequent download. Or a link can be emailed to delegates and other interested people. “This,” believes Carruthers, “beats speaker’s notes hands down.” Among the organisations in South Africa currently using webinars to reach out to specific audiences are the IMM Graduate School, the Financial Planning Institute of Southern Africa, The Global Travel and Tourism Partnership, and technology company Intel. Mike Simpson is the Editor of the IMM Journal of Strategic Marketing. He has more than 30 years’ media experience across three continents and has also worked in marketing and public relations. PHOTOS: SUPPLIED A video feed obviously consumes more bandwidth, but Delport says this has never been a problem for her. Reed is not so sure. “We are doing audio-only at the moment. This is one of our challenges. We have enough bandwidth to offer video, but most of our readers don’t have the bandwidth to receive the video feed,” she says.